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Business Rates - Small Business Rates Relief

This relief is aimed at helping small businesses where they are not entitled to another mandatory relief.

Relief is based on the Rateable Value (RV) of your business in the relevant valuation period.

Who qualifies?

Businesses that occupy only one property in England and have an RV of less than £15,000 (£12,000 up to 31 March 2017).

Businesses may qualify if they occupy one main property and other additional properties, providing that:

the additional properties do not have individual RVs of more than £2,899 (2,599 up to 31 March 2017) and

the combined RV of all the properties is under £20,000 (18,000 up to 31 March 2017)

Businesses that qualify for small business rate relief when they occupy more than one property can only be granted relief on the main property.

Businesses receiving small business rate relief that take on an additional property which would currently disqualify them from receiving relief, will continue to receive their existing relief for 12 months.

Small business rate relief is funded by a supplement added to all other rates bills. However, if your property has a rateable value above £15,000 (£12,000 up to 31 March 2017) but below £51,000 (£18,000 up to 31 March 2017), your bill will have already been calculated using the lower small business multiplier. This means that although you are not entitled to the relief, you will not have to pay the supplement.

How much relief will I get?

Relief is on a sliding scale.

Up to to 31 March 2017

Properties with an RV of up to £6,000 receive 100 per cent relief.

Properties with an RV between £6,000 and £12,000, will receive tapered relief and relief will gradually reduce from 100 per cent at £6,000 to 0 per cent at £12,000.

From 1 April 2017, Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR) doubled and the thresholds increased to benefit a greater number of businesses.

Properties with an RV of up to £12,000 will receive 100 per cent relief.

Properties with an RV between £12,000 and £15,000 will receive tapered relief and relief will gradually reduce from 100 per cent at £12,000 to 0 per cent at £15,000.